Words By K1NG

When it comes down to it, Blu is probably the best rapper out of the up and comers. He might not have the most mainstream acceptable music, but you’d be hard pressed to find a subpar verse from the Southern California resident. His lyricism has shined through on each of his three retail albums he’s put out in the last two years, regardless of your feelings on the production.

His most accessible album to date has to be Below The Heavens, which was the highlight of the independent scene for 2007. The LP paired him up with the MPC2000 equipped Exile to craft him an album full of beautiful soul samples to pour his heart over with his uniquely laid back flow.

Well, due to some digging around the net and a suggestion from a fellow Blu supporter I came across a track from Exile’s 2006 album Dirty Science that opens with an absolutely amazing opening verse from the L.A. resident that makes me anticipate what’s next for him in 2009.

“I’m trying to find my way out of this, living at home
Trying to find out who my father is, sitting alone
Bumping Common Sense, blown
Not off the chronic, but off the knowledge in his dome
Still astonished, but I gotta move on
See, my mother thinks my problem is I really ain’t accomplish shit
21 without a car scarred without a scholarship
some days I don’t eat all I got is pocket lint
I walk around with cold feet and I’m thinner than my wallet is
But she don’t realize her son is five times dominant
as most dudes she honorin’ but she don’t see the prominence
probably fuck around and change the world like Bob Marley did
My talents apparent, but it’s fatherless, so how she gonna acknowledge it?
I hate running away from my problems without solving it proper
And I don’t wanna be a doctor
I just wanna be the father that my father never bothered to be
My son will never have to follow the streets, his role model is me…”

Exile Feat. Blu, Donel Smokes, Ca$hius King & Jontel – “Maintain”